AN Australian-first trial to analyse the potential of WA-produced sulphate of potash (SoP) fertiliser will kick off this year.
The trials will take the form of a two-year glasshouse study at The University of Western Australia's (UWA) Institute of Agriculture and in broadacre field trials that will be carried out on five farms across Western Australia and be run by the WA No-Tillage Farmers Association (WANTFA)
The comprehensive study will compare commonly used muriate of potash (MoP) with SoP and investigate the full effects of both potassium sources on crop yield, quality, safety and value.
The trials will see Australian Potash Company (APC), UWA and WANTFA collaborate for the first time to gauge the effectiveness of SoP produced from APC's Lake Wells project.
The aim of the trials will be to investigate exactly what SoP does to soil biology in comparison to MoP.
WANTFA has selected paddock trial sites in Bolgart, Grass Patch, Kojonup, Southern Cross and Yuna.
Each site will receive four to six treatments of SoP and MoP, with differences to crops and soil recorded over two seasons.
UWA will add scientific rigour by studying the yield and quality of key grain crops applied with SoP and MoP on soils collected from the paddocks in the field trial sites.
At the same time as the scientific studies are happening, APC will release its Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) of its Lake Wells Sulphate of Potash project.
APC plans to initially produce 150,000 tonnes per annum of premium SoP by 2020 for the local and overseas markets.
The next stage is expected to commence in 2026 providing an additional 150,000t/annum.
APC managing director Matt Shackleton said the launch of the trials was another milestone for the company.
"It is all going full steam ahead now," Mr Shackleton said.
"Being able to team up with UWA's Institute of Agriculture and WANTFA is pleasing for APC.
"They are pretty heavy hitters in the WA agricultural scene and will provide real credibility to what we are doing.
"We can bang on about how good we are until the cows come home, but ultimately farmers want to know, how much it is going to cost, which is my job and also they want someone like WANTFA or UWA to say to them, 'we have set up independent trials, have gone through the process, we are doing it for your benefit, so come and have a look'."
Mr Shackleton said the trials were an exciting development for APC.
"On the back of the SoP we produced in January, we thought it would be stock standard, run of the mill SoP," he said.
"We had an engineer come out from the United States and within eight hours he had produced the first SoP for us and it is A grade at 53 per cent quality, which is about the highest you can get.
"The other thing that blew us away was that it was 100pc soluble.
"So it is not only the broadacre guys that we can appeal to, but also the horticulture industry, which is potentially a big market for us also."
Mr Shackleton said the next step was to get the SoP out to the trial farms and get the trials going before the break of the season hits.
"We will run two years of trials looking at barley and wheat this year at UWA and then canola and lupins next year," he said.
"In terms of the field trials, that will be up to the farmers' discretion as to what crops they want to trial it on.
"The field trials are a really important component of this, it is where we can get into that economic conversation.
"Farmers can start telling me how much they think the SoP is worth and I can start talking about how much we think we can produce it for."
UWA's Institute of Agriculture and School of Agriculture and Environment professor Kadambot Siddique said it would be the first trials conducted at UWA comparing MoP to SoP.
"In the past 10 to 15 years crop production in WA has almost doubled," professor Siddique said.
"There are more significant amounts of nutrients coming out of the soil, through baling of straw and so on and potassium deficiency is seen more now than in the past for this reason.
"There is a need for farmers to apply potassium fertiliser, particularly on duplex soils.
"What we will investigate is whether SoP is a better alternative and will it boost crop production.
"SoP is a bit softer in terms of crop establishment, particularly in canola and the other aspect is will there be more leaching comparing MoP and SoP?
"Finally we want to look at yield and quality results of key grains such as wheat, barley and canola.
"In our system we will collect soils from the field trial locations, bring them back to UWA and analyse these soils for nutrients and pH and so on.
"We will then apply a dose of MoP and SoP and compare the response of key crops.
"We will be looking at early growth, flowering and maturity and analysing plant tissue to gauge the nutrients available including potassium.
"It will give us a very detailed response in a controlled environment."
WANTFA executive director Dr David Minkey said his organisation would undertake evaluations of the SoP within the field.
"We have lined up five trial sites to undertake field evaluations of MoP versus SoP, looking at dose response, side by side comparisons and also crop safety because one of the issues with MoP is you can't sow it with the seed too much because it burns the seed," Dr Minkey said.
"We are in charge of managing that and feeding that information through to the agricultural sector and APC is using us to be independent and carry out the science behind it."
Dr Minkey said the growers that would be hosting the sites were very excited to see how the trials go.
"They are quite passionate about potentially having a local source of SoP available and none of them hesitated about being involved in the trial," he said.
"WA is the biggest user of potassium given our soil types, and farmers probably don't put on as much potassium as they would like due to the cost, so there will be a lot of growers following these trials to see the results."